Chidambaram should face contempt of court trial: Swamy

New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for allegedly trying to prevent him from pursuing the 2G cases.

Swamy said that Chidambaram was allegedly responsible for the filing of a defamation case against him in Singapore.

Swamy made a mentioning of his petition before the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya, seeking suo motu initiation of contempt proceedings against Chidambaram.

The Janata Party president said that Advantage Strategic Consulting Singapore, controlled by Chidambaram’s son Kirit P. Chidambaram, has filed a defamation case against him for pointing to questionable transactions between the company and telecom company Aircel.

Swamy told the court that he had approached Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati and Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman for their consent to initiate contempt proceedings against the finance minister.

But both of them declined to give consent for differing reasons as they were either engaged in the 2G case or had counselled some parties involved in the case earlier, Swamy said.

In such a situation, the court could take suo motu cognizance and initiate contempt proceedings against Chidambaram, he said.

The court said it would hear him only after his petition was numbered by the registry.

Swamy later said that if any defamation proceedings were to be initiated against him, these could be initiated in India as Advantage Strategic Consulting Singapore was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Advantage Strategic Consulting India.